India had offered to send army aircraft to join search-and-rescue mission to rescue earthquake survivors in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

But Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed told his Indian counterpart Shyam Saran that Pakistan is willing to accept the helicopters but without the Indian pilots. India insists its pilots fly the craft.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has put the official death toll at 41,000, with 67,000 injured, but feared a greater loss of life awaited rescuers beyond the landslides and collapsed bridges cutting off two valleys in Kashmir from the rest of Pakistan.